How free kids' websites make money from your child (we checked 167)
We opened 167 free kids' sites like a child would. 75 contacted ad networks on the first visit and 33 contacted data brokers. What that means, and how to check.
Most free kids' websites are paid for by advertising, and the advertising is paid for by your child's attention. We opened 167 free kids' learning and game sites the way a child would and wrote down what each one contacted: 75 sent the visit to ad networks, 33 to data brokers, and 27 to six or more ad networks at once, all before anyone answered a cookie banner. The full table, with every site and the method, is on the ad check. Peabody (peabody.kids) is free through the end of 2026 and shows no ads at all; more on that at the end.
How a "free" site gets paid
A site that charges nothing has to be paid by someone. For most of the free kids' web, that someone is an advertiser, and the way it works is not obvious from the page.
When a page loads, it can call dozens of other companies in the background. An ad network decides which ad to show in a slot on the page. Many slots are sold in a split-second auction: the page tells the bidders a little about the visit (the device, the rough location, the page, sometimes an ID), and the highest bidder's ad appears. A data broker or ID-sync service is different: it matches this visit to the same device elsewhere on the web and adds it to a profile that can be sold or used to target ads later.
None of that is visible to a child. They see a game, and an ad beside it, and maybe a video that starts on its own.
What we found
We used a script that opens each site in a phone-sized browser with no account, clicks nothing, waits about fifteen seconds, scrolls once, and records every outside company the page contacts. The same script, the same rules, the same day (25 October 2026), for every site.
- 75 of 167 contacted at least one ad network on the first visit.
- 33 contacted data brokers or ID-sync services, the companies that build profiles across sites.
- 27 contacted six or more ad networks. The heaviest pages contacted 100 to 184 outside sites and set 125 or more cookies before any consent.
Some of the heaviest pages are ones families use every week:
| Site | Ad networks | Data brokers | Outside sites contacted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coolmath Games | 27 | 7 | 89 |
| Little Bins for Little Hands | 30 | 7 | 101 |
| Red Ted Art | 28 | 7 | 97 |
| Babble Dabble Do | 27 | 7 | 105 |
| Math Playground | 8 | 1 | 28 |
| ABCya | 6 | 0 | 29 |
The craft and science blogs are written for parents, but children follow the projects on them, often on a tablet, and the ads beside the instructions are adult ads: insurance, health clinics, auto-playing videos. Word and puzzle games popular with older kids, like Contexto, Sudoku.com and Quordle, ran full ad auctions with 27 to 34 ad networks each; several of them say in their own terms that they are not for children at all.
Some sites that sell themselves as safe for kids still showed ads on the first screen. A kids' search site showed Google ads, a talk forum and clickbait-style video titles before a child had searched for anything.
The good news: many free sites show no ads
76 of the 167 contacted no ad network and no tracker at all. PBS KIDS Games, Starfall, NASA Space Place, Blockly Games, Kiddle, Libby, Project Gutenberg and Storynory are among them, and many are run by public broadcasters, libraries, universities or nonprofits that are paid for some other way. Every one of the 76 is listed on the ad check. A site with no ads can still have other catches, such as chat with strangers or adult terms, so the directory page for each one says what we found.
Why this matters for children
- A child cannot tell an ad from the game. Research on young children and advertising has found for decades that under about age 8 most children do not understand that an ad is trying to sell them something.
- The data is about a child. In the United States, COPPA requires parental consent before collecting personal information from children under 13 for things like targeted ads. A general site that says it is not for children, or a page "for parents" that children use anyway, can fall outside that protection.
- Attention is the product. Ads, auto-playing video and "one more game" are all ways of keeping a child on the page longer. That is the opposite of what a learning site should want.
How to check any site yourself
You do not need a script.
- Look before your child does. Open the site on the device your child uses, and see what is on the first screen: ads, videos that start on their own, a chat box, prompts to buy.
- Use a tracker blocker that shows its work. Free browser extensions like Privacy Badger or uBlock Origin Lite list the outside companies a page tries to contact.
- On an iPhone or iPad, turn on the App Privacy Report in Settings to see which outside domains each app and website contacts.
- Read the age line in the terms. If a site says it is not for children under 13 or 16, believe it.
- Prefer sites paid for some other way: public broadcasters, libraries, universities, nonprofits, or a subscription you choose.
How Peabody is paid for
Peabody shows no ads and has no in-app purchases, no upsells and no data brokers. It is free through the end of 2026 and is paid for by its founder, a dad in Denver, not by advertisers. We ran the same check on 22 of Peabody's own pages, as an ordinary visitor: no ads, no ad networks, no data brokers. The one outside service is Google Analytics, which counts visits anonymously by country and device and is not used for ads; a browser that sends Global Privacy Control is not counted at all.
You can try it: the learning games, the library of stories at your child's level, the Kitchen and the Workbench need no account, no email and no name. Or start at the front page.
Questions parents ask
Are free kids' websites safe?
Many are, and many are not. On our check, about half of 167 free kids' sites contacted ad networks on a child's first visit and about one in five contacted data brokers. Look at the first screen, use a tracker blocker, and prefer sites paid for by someone other than advertisers.
Which free kids' websites have no ads?
On our check, 76 of 167, including PBS KIDS Games, Starfall, NASA Space Place, Blockly Games, Kiddle, Libby, Project Gutenberg and Storynory. The full list is on the ad check page.
Does Peabody show ads?
No. Peabody shows no ads, sells nothing inside the site, and its pages contact no ad network or data broker. It is free through the end of 2026.
Checked against how Peabody works on 25 October 2026. Written with help from AI. Peabody is a reading app, not a reading assessment: if you're worried about your child's reading, talk to their teacher.